White Knight Chronicles may very well be the worst game I have ever played, and I own a Wii.
Let's examine the merits of this game.
Story/Characters:
Story? What story? Okay, the premise of the game is the average guy obtains a special power and is tasked with rescuing the princess. Mario and Link have the whole princess rescuing business taken care of, and we surely don't need other people doing it. That's basically the whole game. You're chasing after the princess, and as another poster above alluded to, she is always in another castle.
But we can't forget Boromir or Faramir or whichever Tolkien human it was who was upset his surrogate king-father was offed. After the events in the first city in the game, he takes a band of soldiers (apparently five or so in number) to go start a war initially or just follow behind you eventually. He gets drunk. He crosses the desert. He follows you some more. And he's in the ending, still walking. Thanks, pointless plot detail that won't have any significance to the sequel I'm not going to play.
Then we have the Black Knight who apparently pulled a Double Dragon on us and is reeeeeeeeeeeeeeally that sweet assassin you thought you could trust if only she weren't scowling with grade-school foreshadowing across her visage. Apparently no one notices her scream out VERTO! offscreen as she transforms into the Knight, gets her ass kicked, flies away, and limps back onto the camera, scowling. I'd probably scowl too if my life revolved around being a ridiculous plot twist.
And I almost forgot, there's a whole mess about multiple personae in the psyche of a few characters competing for control of the physical body. And multiple people being the General. And other stuff like that. They all have one thing in common: they go absolutely nowhere and are dismissed just as soon as they are brought up.
And then we have the princess who is always muttering ancient spells that she isn't aware of. The childhood sweetheart who has feelings for the hero, but the hero is oblivious to her. The old, distant swordsman/mentor who is also a rather meaningless plot twist since apparently he is an ancient. Caesar at least provides some much-needed comic relief if you can actually stomach getting to him. You actually have to be trying to make a game of nothing but cliché after cliché!
It really doesn't matter if there is a sequel coming. It really doesn't matter if it's part of a trilogy. If you can't tell a competent story in the first third of the trilogy, why are you bothering in the first place? A trilogy isn't a free ticket to half-ass it in the first two games and present something decent in the final game. A first game in a trilogy is meant to compel the player to buy the next two games. With this, they have failed in every possible way.
There's really nothing redeeming in the single player game. While inspired by an MMO, I find it much more boring than UO, EQ, FFXI, WoW, hell, even SWG at its lowest. The single player game copies that genre by having the same map setup and general combat style. The combat really isn't a large issue, but the maps are the biggest fault. Quite simply, they are very large and very empty. If I were competing for mobs to kill for exp or a quest in a non-instanced area, it'd be fine. But as this is either a single player game or an online instanced one, it just leaves the areas being vacant for the sake of being large.
The online portion is probably worse than the single player game when you really think about it. Essentially it's Phantasy Star Online without the charm of being something new and interesting on the Dreamcast. The game is broken down into a series of limited quests with higher-tiered versions of the same quests accessible with higher guild ranks.
The problem is that there is a huge grind through the lower version quests which you can solo by the time you've beaten the offline game. Moreover, the grind to higher guild ranks is so large that the only feasible way to get through them is to grind. There is nothing interesting about these easy quests since there is no challenge unless you wanted to tackle them with a low level character.
The real game, GR8ish and up, just doesn't begin fast enough since you have to grind for hours and hours and hours through the easy stuff to get there. Once there, you are treated to harder versions of the same things. Well, at least you get to do group dynamics now since the quests aren't so laughably easy.
At this point you can tell the limits of the combat system. Yes, tanking is as easy as hitting Threaten whenever you lose hate. Yes, that 2-handed sword user is outdamaging your axe by a large amount since he can generate 2 AC in exchange for 20 MP whenever he wants and you can't.
The entire thing is set up as a grind through the ranks to get better equipment to grind through the ranks for better equipment. However, none of it is rather interesting. In the case of an MMO, your grinding for levels and gear will allow you to tackle NEW things, not the same old stuff again and again.
In conclusion, there's not much about the game that is of any merit. I really would expect better from Level 5 since they have done some stellar work in the past.
TLDR version: Next time you notice Game Stop is giving a trade-in bonus, bring WKC with you.
Wow. This game is inspiring some strong feelings ... not positive feelings but intense feelings none the less. I wish I could harness that type of energy and motivation in the previous post to finish my dissertation.
I hope the goozex value starts dropping quickly, so I can try it out on the cheap.
Another thing I forgot to mention of course is the lack of a system to set up your characters in the offline game to use any sort of tactic beyond a general "Use MP!" or "Don't use MP!" sense. What ended up happening is because the game lacked any sort of Gambit system or pause menu like Mass Effect has to issue commands, I would have to switch every time before combat began to the character I had designated as the tank so he could use Threaten, and then switch back to the character I actually wanted to play. About halfway through the game, I just resigned to playing the tank the whole time because it took much time to keep switching characters like that.
You would think that if they were basing it off an MMO with MMO-inspired "classes," they would have included a simple way to have your teammates use a command automatically or at the very least allow you to issue it without switching characters.
agree with shawn006 on the grind part. I stopped playing the game after I realized I wasn't getting to play new quests, it was just the same quests but more difficult.
Although they are releasing new quests every now and then, I want to try them at least. I really hate how the leveling system works though. They encourage you NOT to join a party when leveling up because you get more exp going it solo. I like grind-RPGs, but only to the point where you're able to do new things after you put in the time. All I can do is the same quests that are a higher tier.
[quote name='SnorE']soo is this game worth looking into? the reviews sound like its bad? does anyone play online anymore?[/QUOTE]
I've been playing it for a month or so at around 6-8 hours a day and I love it. The single player mode is fun for a while, but does get ridiculous after a while. Online is where the fun is at, but to truly appreciate the online experience you have to finish the single player mode... twice. The advantage of getting into the game now, is that a lot of good towns are already set up for you to take advantage of, rather than having to build georama towns from the ground up.
Just make sure you get this game for the right reasons. If you're getting it to get some trophies... move along. You can't expect to hit platinum until about 600 hours in.
[quote name='pete5883']The sequel is going to contain the entire first game, improved. So wait for that, unless you're really cheap.[/QUOTE]
Huh, that's really cool. I wanted to get WKC but it never dropped enough. It's practically a two-fer for a game I wanted from the get go, yay.
[quote name='SnorE']is the single player mode long? i would like to get it for the online experience...debating weather i should trade GOW III for this[/QUOTE]
The first time through, it depends on your playing style. Anywhere from 30-60 hours. The second time through will be significantly less (5-10 hours).
I'm hoping to get this game for about 7.50 with that Blockbuster B1G1 free promotion. If I don't find it, I won't feel so bad since the sequel will be coming out... possibly.
Not far, although I haven't played enough to be sure I really understand the interaction between online and offline modes. It may be possible to just start in once you've created the initial avatar, but I know you can definitely go online after the georama tutorial you'll hit a few hours in.
While it's possible to get to the online portion about a third of the way into the single player (possibly sooner... it's been a while since I played the single player), I HIGHLY recommend finishing at least one playthrough before hopping online. You will be vastly underpowered for the online portions. If you can even blast through the second playthrough on NG+, that'd be even more beneficial for you (second playthrough can be done in under 10 hours).
I'd be interested in questing too. Add my PSN if you want. My new character is level 8 right now, my original is 48
I started questing around 40 or so. (But then again, that was before all of those DLC quests came out, so most of the quests were manageble with an intelligent party)
Also, the damn opening theme is stuck in my head again
I picked it up from target for $9 but probably won't get to it for 2-3 months. I'd like to finish fallout 3 and ratchet and clank first. By that time probably no one will be playing online.
